For PSG, beating Real Madrid is the final frontier in proving they are Europe’s elite team

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With a shrug of the shoulders, Luis Enrique quickly dismissed any suggestion that Paris Saint-Germain were vengeful ahead of the Club World Cup quarter-final against Bayern Munich.

“I don’t feel any sense of revenge. Revenge for what? A Champions League match? For me, it’s a bit different.”

Bayern, along with Arsenal and Atletico Madrid, were the three sides who beat PSG in the league phase of 2024-25.

It must be remembered that, for as well as Luis Enrique’s side peaked in deep knockout rounds — and rose to the occasion to thrash Inter Milan 5-0 in the final — there was a period when they were at risk of not even qualifying for the league phase.

When they lost in Munich in November, PSG had only five points from four matches.

Now, they are one win away from a fourth final of 2025 and a chance to complete the set: the Ligue 1 title, Super Cup, Coupe de France and Champions League trophies all have PSG inscribed for 2024-25.

They have looked every bit the European champions they are since finally winning the continent’s biggest club tournament in June.

In the Californian heat on matchday one of this Club World Cup, they dominated possession and controlled the tempo to beat Atletico 4-0. If not revenge, that was redemption for the smash-and-grab win Atletico produced in Paris.

Likewise the Champions League semi-final win over Arsenal in April, when PSG led from the third minute of the first leg and never relinquished control. They won both legs with some comfort after losing 2-0 at the Emirates in the league phase.

The 2-0 win over Vincent Kompany’s Bayern on Saturday came at a cost, with two red cards, but successful tournament teams win in ugly ways when needed and it proved the progression PSG have made this calendar year.

After all, eight of the starting XI in Atlanta were the same as the team that was outclassed in Munich. With the exception of buying Khvicha Kvaratskhelia from Napoli in January, PSG’s improvement has been coached as much as it has been bought.

Time, then, for a Club World Cup semi-final and perhaps the last significant test — and certainly the most appropriate one — for any tactically complete side: can you knock out Real Madrid?

Madrid are, having three-peated in 2016, 2017 and 2018, the last team to win consecutive Champions League trophies. It is why Kylian Mbappe, after seven seasons, left PSG last summer for Madrid.

PSG’s success in 2024-25 without their former talisman only multiplied their achievements.

They are fantastically set to be the first club since Madrid to defend a Champions League title, even if reaching consecutive finals is an increasing rarity. Liverpool, in 2018 and 2019, were the last back-to-back finalists. Reaching the level is one thing, staying there is another.

Luis Enrique’s side are young, packed with technicians, increasingly tactically flexible, a nightmare to play against when they press, and in a successful habit of scoring early in matches.

They play with little fear. Here, PSG are attacking versus Bayern with a rotated shape that few opponents have really worked out how to defend against.

Their wingers (Kvaratskhelia and Bradley Barcola) provide the width; Vitinha advances to compensate for Desire Doue, the No 9, dropping wide; both full-backs, Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes, move high and narrow to overload the half-spaces.

They started the game with direct play against Bayern’s man-for-man press. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma hit his first three kicks long, primarily targeting Kvaratskhelia.

There was one build-up on 48 minutes where he mis-hit the pass and instantly gesticulated out of frustration. As it was, a Bayern error meant the ball dropped for Kvaratskhelia, who sent Barcola through one-versus-one, but a big, two-handed Manuel Neuer save kept the game goalless.

Later in the game, PSG switched to bringing Vitinha deep and played shorter build-up as Bayern started to tire. He slotted between the centre-backs, giving greater licence for Hakimi and Mendes to push forward and be the release valves on the outside.

They showed in the first half that this was the way to break Bayern down. Barcola had particular joy rolling inside to receive passes from Hakimi, with defender Josip Stanisic struggling to defend the France international one-versus-one.

Here, as Bayern lock on, Willian Pacho hits a switch over the PSG midfield to Barcola.

He receives and faces up, dribbling inside where Bayern are light, leaving three-versus-three on halfway.

Barcola’s dribbling changes the picture, attracting Stanisic and Aleksandar Pavlovic. This makes space for Doue to release Hakimi — running in Kingsley Coman’s blindspot — when Barcola passes forward to him.

The critique (one rarely levelled at Mbappe when he was at PSG) is that Hakimi is not selfish enough here. He crosses low and early, sensing Kvaratskhelia’s back-post run, and could take the ball closer to goal or even shoot.

The Georgia international reaches the ball but can only fire into the side netting.

“It’s not enough to do what we’ve done this past season in the next, we have to change, we have to improve things,” Luis Enrique told reporters before facing Bayern.

“There is no magic formula. We will change because teams adapt. That’s the difficulty of modern football — all coaches are prepared, all players are better physically and technically than ever.

“So you adapt, you improvise, and you become unpredictable for your opponent, or you are dead.”

That showed versus Bayern with plenty of switches of play — sometimes in quick succession — and how much Vitinha manipulated his position to drag Joshua Kimmich around, with the midfielder man-marking him.

The opening goal encapsulated PSG under Luis Enrique. It all originates from some flowing build-up, where Vitinha dinks a pass to the advancing Mendes in behind Bayern right-back Sacha Boey.

He gave the ball to Kvaratskhelia and then the move broke down when the winger lost possession. Within five seconds, PSG had it back, as Joao Neves pounced on Harry Kane, who had received a forward pass as Bayern’s outball.

A quick one-two with Hakimi was all it took to get Neves on the underlap and into a crossing position. He ignored the three-versus-three in the box and cut it back for Doue, who reversed a finish into the near post. Neuer was rooted to the spot.

79′ DÉSIRÉ DOUÉ!

Excellent finish into the bottom corner and PSG lead 1-0! pic.twitter.com/FGfPQY67Gh

— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) July 5, 2025

That goal made Doue PSG’s ninth different scorer at this summer’s tournament. They are so hard to stop because they can hit teams from all angles, and are not even close to reliant on Ousmane Dembele and his 33 goals from last season.

Dembele, once a creative, two-footed but profligate winger who Luis Enrique coached into a prolific striker, has not started any of the five Club World Cup games. He came off the bench against Bayern to seal the game in second-half stoppage time.

PSG were, in March 2022, on the wrong end of a Madrid remontada at the Bernabeu. They had won the first leg 1-0, and were 2-0 up on aggregate following Mbappe’s 39th-minute goal.

Then Karim Benzema produced a 17-minute second-half hat-trick. PSG were powerless as their lead disintegrated, and — like when they lost the 2020 final to a Coman header — a France international defeated them.

A galactico front three of Neymar, Lionel Messi and Mbappe only produced two shots after the break. Their only effort after Madrid scored was a Messi free kick in stoppage time.

This all makes for quite a neat throughline for PSG to be beating opponents they recently lost to and players who were once their own.

Messi’s Inter Miami were dispatched 4-0 in the round of 16, with four very different goals all scored before half-time.

Joao Neves, the smallest player on the pitch at 5ft 9in (174cm), made a back-post run to head in the opener.

Neves and PSG’s second came after pressing high and forcing a mistake, and the game was put to bed with two different crossing situations from the right.

It was 3-0 when they worked around the Miami block and Doue made a run inside the full-back to receive Hakimi’s slipped pass. He fired a cross into the six-yard box, which missed Fabian Ruiz but hit defender Tomas Aviles and went in.

The fourth was the move of the bunch, with eight retreating pink shirts bisected by Vitinha’s chipped pass to Barcola.

Five other PSG players flooded the box, and he pulled it back for Hakimi. When his initial first-time effort was deflected onto the bar, the Morocco international tapped in the rebound.

😱 | Et de 4 pour Paris avant la pause ! 🔥💥#FIFACWC #TakeItToTheWorld

Regardez la rencontre @PSG_inside 🆚 @InterMiamiCF gratuitement ici : https://t.co/kAQFrmIwIx ! 👈 pic.twitter.com/FyinB1N0tu

— DAZN France (@DAZN_FR) June 29, 2025

Madrid might not be the animal they once were and are clearly in a transition phase under Xabi Alonso after Carlo Ancelotti’s departure.

Last season was their worst European performance for five years (quarter-finals), Barcelona beat them to the title by four points and Madrid lost both domestic cup finals to them — the Copa del Rey on penalties, and 5-2 in the Super Cup.

Even so, there will never not be a significance about beating Madrid in a deep knockout round where they so often come alive.

For Luis Enrique, Mr Barcelona himself — and one of a few head coaches with a winning record against Madrid — this will once again not be about revenge. Rather, it is another opportunity for PSG to cement their status as Europe’s elite side.

(Top photo: Steph Chambers – FIFA via Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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